Researchers from three universities in Australia have successfully recorded the fastest internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second, speeds capable of downloading 1000 HD movies in a fraction of a second. Against the background of the sudden vital importance of Internet technologies for remote work, this development has enormous potential. The research used a new device called a microcomb, which replaces 80 lasers and is smaller and lighter than existing telecommunications equipment. The device was planted and tested under load using the existing infrastructure. It is the first time that a microcomb has been used in a field trial. While demos at this level are typically carried out in labs, the team used existing communication infrastructure, allowing them to effectively test the load on the network. This will speed up the process of making this technology available worldwide.
Faster internet speeds
The team, comprising Dr Bill Corcoran (Lead - Monash), Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell (RMIT) and Professor David Moss (Swinburne), installed 76,6km of 'dark' fiber optics between the city campus from Melbourne. RMIT and the Clayton campus of Monash University. The microcomb, supplied by Swinburne, was placed within these fibers. It acted like a rainbow made up of hundreds of high-quality infrared lasers on a single chip. Each "laser" can be used as a separate communication channel. The researchers were able to mimic the spike in internet usage by sending as much data as possible on each channel. "We are currently envisioning how the Internet infrastructure will last two to three years, due to the unprecedented number of people using the Internet for remote work, socializing, and streaming. This shows us we really need to be able to increase the capacity of our Internet connections." said Dr. Corcoran. "And it's not just Netflix we're talking about here: it's the broader scale of use for our communications networks. This data can be used for autonomous cars and future transportation and can help the medical, educational, financial, and e-commerce, as well as allowing us to read with our grandchildren from miles away." Leading Professor Mitchell said the goal for the future is to move current transmitters from hundreds of gigabytes per second to tens of terabytes per second, without increasing size, weight or cost.